Online advertising may be an important source of revenue for enterprises engaged in electronic commerce. A number of different kinds of page-based online advertisements are currently in use, along with various associated distribution requirements, advertising metrics, and pricing mechanisms. Processes associated with technologies such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) enable a page to be configured to contain a location for inclusion of an advertisement. An advertisement can be selected for display each time the page is requested, for example, by a browser or server application.
Traditional media (television, radio) ads are sold based on a time interval (15 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, etc.). A single programming break may contain multiple advertisements divided into this time interval. The advertisers pay for each advertisement based on the length of the time interval the advertisement occupies. Conversely, online advertisements are typically sold based on a set price or a bid and are displayed once in a web page. Most web pages are static, so a reload of the existing page or the loading of a new page may be necessary to get new content within the page. Each reload of a page is counted as a separate page view. Therefore, if the same web page is reopened or reloaded, a different advertisement may be displayed. Advertisements on each page reload are counted as new ad impressions and are billable.
A page that is opened for viewing without reloading displays the same advertisement. With the contents of a page static, a user is generally expected to spend a relatively short period of time per page view. New advertisements are only displayed after a reload or refresh of a page. Therefore, the advertisements that are displayed are present until a reload, refresh, or opening of a new page.
There has been a shift in terms of how contents are delivered via the web. Pages are becoming increasingly interactive. Interactive technologies are having a very positive impact on the user experience while changing the way a user consumes contents. Users may now spend much longer on the same page without a page reload. Audio, video and other multimedia content are becoming more popular and accessible with increased network speeds. With these types of media user tends to spend more time on an otherwise static website. Accordingly, an advertising system that adapts to the change in user habits may be necessary.